Emma Stone has no time for misogyny in Hollywood.
While accepting the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Awards’ Desert Palm Achievement Award for her performance in Poor Things on Thursday, January 4, Stone, 35, shared some sexist advice she received early in her career.
“When I first moved to L.A., I went to one of those general meetings that they sometimes send you to, and an executive told me that for male actors, it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” the actress recalled, per The Hollywood Reporter. “And in his eyes, for women, it was a sprint, not a marathon. And that was 20 years ago.”
Stone went on to call the belief that women are only relevant in the industry for a limited time “total garbage.”
She continued: “The majority of the women that I look up to in this industry, many of whom are in this room, have proven that as time goes on, life and work only get more interesting and more fulfilling.”
Two of Stone’s Poor Things costars Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe presented her with the accolade.
“Emma Stone continues to exert influence as one of the most important actresses of this generation, whose performances are always exceptional no matter the role. In her latest film Poor Things, Emma delivers a burning intensity and character bound for liberation,” Nachhattar Singh Chandi, the festival’s chairman, said in a November press release announcing Stone’s win.
“There is no one better suited for this role,” Chandi added.
In Poor Things, Stone’s character, Bella Baxter, is brought back to life by surgeon Godwin Baxter (Dafoe) after her suicide. After having her brain replaced with the brain of an infant, Bella quickly regains intelligence and seeks a life beyond the confines of Godwin’s home.
Speaking about her role in the black comedy on Thursday, Stone said she had never before encountered a woman so “immune to external expectations and impervious to judgment and shame.” She added that the film posed a challenge as she “had to try to unlearn those aspects in myself.”
Stone also gave a shout-out to the film’s director, Yorgos Lanthimos, calling the project “a highlight of my life, mainly thanks to a true creative soulmate.”
While wrapping up her speech, Stone hearkened back to the studio exec’s words: “I hope for many more years of the chance to take swings and to try new things and to keep this marathon going.”
Stone previously collaborated with Lanthimos, 50, on the 2018 film The Favourite, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination in 2019. The duo also teamed up for the 2022 silent film Bleat.
“There is absolutely nothing that Emma cannot do,” Lanthimos told W magazine of the La La Land star in November 2018.
